Black Mesa Source : Latest Update
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Just over 5 years now. They have a small team of people, all of whom have other jobs. The magazine played a bit of it and said it was impressive, and it's clear they are actually progressing with development, unlike DNF, which went back to the drawing board once a year.

As an aside, I heard Valve were having a toss up whether or not to make Ep3 into HL3 due to the engine overhaul that's required. The Source engine of old isn't up to scratch no matter what they do and a new engine for a single episode is a little extravagant.

It's a bit of a rock and a hard place seeing as HL2 hasn't technically been finished in terms of storyline.

I think what they have in mind is out of reach of the current source engine, which is fine for what's basically corridor blasting with a few small open areas. Personally I think they should can the uberness and put out Ep3 in the manner the series began rather than taking on grand ideas that would serve a third game better.

Their intent is to create more of a sandbox than a linear ride, which source just isn't able to do.

I don't think so. HL2 was let down by masses of mindlessly dull padding, and Ep1 felt like a half baked, farmed out cash in. Ep2 felt like they were bolting on things to keep up with current games, but fell a way short.

I'd be quite happy if Ep3 is Source. I think it's an engine that's aged extremely well. It's not glossy, but it's far from ugly and has a certain attractive charm to it that I like. I want them to get the damn thing out this year though. It's getting silly :/

I thought Half Life 2, ep1 and ep2 were all fantastic, i still don't think the source engine has been matched in terms of atmosphere, if ep 3 was more of the same that would be fine my me and the sooner the better.

I can see them going a bit more open world with Half Life 3, but if a new engine is required i wouldn't expect to see it this side of 2015

no but things like vaseline people from the unreal engine can drop the atmosphere. Valve did a great job in keeping everything as realistic as possible in that you never think "wtf is going on with that"

I am not entirely sure if your post is sarcastic towards disc or not, but surely engines often have a certain "look", independently of the art direction?

You can tell from a mile off that Zeno Clash uses Source, and Mass Effect uses Unreal.

I'm not being sarcastic towards disc at all.

They do have a certain "look" (feel is a better word) but there's a confusion that often arises, like UE3 only has overly butch characters - as disc says, Mirrors Edge doesn't look like that, it has a papery, pin sharp quality. Borderlands has texture melt but doesn't otherwise look like UE3 at all.

The only source games I can think of offhand are from the Valve cannon, which all have the same general look to the art direction.

squarejawhero wrote:
The only source games I can think of offhand are from the Valve cannon, which all have the same general look to the art direction.

Well, Zeno Clash which I mentioned isn't, nor is Dark Messiah or Vampire: The Masquerade.

Obviously they don't look the same, but you can tell it's the same engine, just like you can tell The Last Remnant and Mass Effect use UE3.

Granted, saying all UE3 engine games have space marine characters is nonsense, but there is a certain look or "feel", as you put it, in UE3 games that I am not overly fond of, either., as good (and different) as the games might look.

I'd be totally happy with ep3 using the source engine. There's nothing wrong with how ep2 looks IMO. I'm a big boy now, I can cope with my mind not being completely blown away by everything that comes out.

I'm playing through the orane box at te moment and to be honest I'm quite fond of the way it looks.

All three Half-life games are superb. Like people are saying, it's the art direction that makes the games - it gives HL2 a longevity that most games simply don't have. I was playing Episode 2 a few nights back and it still looks lovely and the diegetic details are second to none.